


Video Game Limbo

by Dustydennicks



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: All Characters are OCs, Gen, Video Game Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:43:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4471019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dustydennicks/pseuds/Dustydennicks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dustin is banished from his hometown because of a destructive scene he accidentally caused.  While on the run, he finds a portal to a different dimension, where he meets Skye, a hot-headed runaway who had accidentally caused the portal that Dustin travelled through.  Together, they travel through the many multiple video game universes, meeting multiple friends and allies along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Video Game Limbo

  **On the Run**

          The grass felt soft, though I hardly had enough time to register the feeling as I ran away from the wolf that was chasing after me.  Though the wolf was a pretty large breed, I’d managed to keep away from it so far by dodging and turning through the trees to confuse it. I’d thought I was in the clear by running back into town until I tripped over the stump of a fallen tree. With a loud scream, I fell flat on my face, trying and almost failing to roll over while the mutt chased after me. I got up and tried to reevaluate my surroundings.

            As the wolf ran up to me, its teeth barely visible in the warm sunset, I thought I had no choice but to fight back.  The wolf pounced, causing me to react by kicking my foot up in the air. By some divine intervention, or some mere stroke of luck, my shoe connected with the bottom of the wolf’s jaw and sent the wolf rolling on the ground.  When it picked itself up a second later, it looked at me with its fangs bared.

            “N-nice doggy…” I said softly, putting my arms in front of me so as not to incite violence in the bloodthirsty beast.  “There’s nothing to get too excited about….” Slowly looking to my right, I found a decent-sized stick lying on the ground right next to my foot. I slowly reached down to pick the stick up, hoping the wolf was dumb enough to play catch.  This, in hindsight, was a bad idea, because the wolf started charging toward me again.

            Without thinking, I grabbed the stick and followed through with a backhand swing, hitting the wolf right in the nose.  The wolf yelped in pain as it backed up, its eyes still focused on me.

            “G-get away!” I yelled, swinging the stick back and forth in an attempt to scare the wolf. I did this to no avail, as the wolf kept inching closer and closer to me, emitting a low growl in the process.

            “I. Just.  Wish.  You’d…” I’d began to tire myself out with all the swinging I was doing.  I’d have to remind myself to start working out. “Go.  Away!!”

            As soon as the word “away” left my mouth, I heard a loud thunderclap.   The force of the sound knocked me over. In my peripheral vision, I thought I saw an intense flash of light, probably the lightning that the thunderclap belonged to.

            I looked up in the sky, but I saw no clouds, and definitely didn’t see any rain.  So then where did the lightning come from?

            I looked around, but I’d noticed that the wolf was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh of relief, I headed back into town.  On the way back, I could faintly smell the hunger-inducing scent of cooked meat.

 

* * *

            As I walked back into town, I noticed the townspeople running back and forth, almost in a panic.

            “F-F-F-FIRE!!” I heard a man call out as he pushed me aside and ran in what I assumed to be the direction of his house.

<<A fire?>> I thought to myself.  <<What’s going on?>>

            It was then that I looked behind me to see what the commotion was about. In the forest I’d just come out of, I saw the biggest wildfire I’d ever seen.  The flames rose higher than the trees, and though the fire seemed to be miles away, people were already in a panic.  The smoke hadn’t yet taken over, so no one had decided to wear protective masks.

            As I ran through the town looking for my family, I saw a police officer talking to a nervous and fidgety man who looked to be in his mid-20s. I recognized him as the guy who ran the local drug store.  I’d come in there just about every day and bought some soda and a snack after school, and he’d always seemed so upbeat and cheerful.  Now his eyes showed nothing but fear as he saw me walk up to him.

            “S-stay away from me!” He yelled, flinching when I came over.

            “What’s wrong?”  I asked him.

            “Y-you’re the one w-who started that fire!”  He replied.

            “What? That’s impossible.  People can’t control the weather!” I said.

            “T-then how come I’d seen you w-with my own two eyes?” The man asked me. “One second you’re raising your hand in the air and shouting, the next a bolt of lightning comes out of nowhere and burns down the forest!”  The police officer looked at me with stone-cold eyes.

            “Is this true, son?”

            Was… was that what happened?  That didn’t sound right at all.  I’m not some strange monster… I’m just Dustin, the kid who likes to go walking through the woods.  I’m just Dustin, the kid who got into a fight with a wolf.

            “No, there’s got to be some misunderstanding.”  I said.  “I’m not like that. I’m not some kind of magician or anything like that!”

            “Well it does seem to be suspicious that a lone teenager walked nonchalantly out of the forest as a giant fire raged behind him.”  The officer noted.

            “It’s also rare to see any sort of lightning at all in this area, much less when there aren’t any clouds in the sky.  Can you explain that, son?”

            “I don’t know, ask a weatherman or something…” I said. “I’m telling you, I didn’t set that fire!”

            That was all it took.  My hands felt hot and I fell over, mentally drained.  
            “What the hell was that?!” The officer yelled.  I opened my eyes and stood up, only to find a large scorch mark on the pavement beside the officer and the drug store clerk.

            “What… what just happened?” I asked, groggy but also scared.

            “You’re coming with me.”  The police officer said.  “You’re under arrest for arson in the third degree.”

            “Officer, there’s got to be some mistake….”

            “There’s no mistake here, son.  You set that fire, there’s no doubt about it.”  He said, cuffing my hands behind my back.

            “You have the right to remain silent.  Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

            “Officer, please, there’s got to be a misunderstanding….”

            I don’t remember much of what happened next.  I was in shock, in rage, in a whole flurry of emotions that I didn’t know what to do.  I had no idea what to say or think.  I’d developed a major headache.  My mind kept spinning with the thousands of thoughts running through it.  I remember whispering, “stop… stop…” over and over, until finally I couldn’t take it anymore.   I cried out in pain, my headache finally becoming unbearable. I collapsed, and that was all I remembered before I woke up.

 

* * *

            When I awoke, the sun wasn’t out.  It was pitch-black outside, save for the street lamps.  I was still in town?  I’d thought that the officer had arrested me.

            “Ooohhhhh….” I moaned as I picked myself up off the ground.  My headache was no longer there, much to my delight, but I still felt groggy.  As I looked around, I saw that the fire had been put out somehow.  The townspeople were no longer panicking as they were before, though they were starting to gather around me since I’d woken up. I wasn’t sure of what was going on, but the people looked… almost scared of me.  Among the crowd, I saw my mother.

            “Mom!” I shouted, slowly walking towards her.  Her face showed an expression of fear, almost horror, as she stood there.

            “D-Dustin.” She said in a low voice.

            “Mom, what’s going on?  Why is everyone out here?”

            “You… you don’t know, do you?” She looked sad, as if she was about to burst into tears.

            “Mom, please tell me what’s going on….”

            “Dustin, you’re the one that caused the fire.  When you passed out on the ground, the fire just disappeared.”

            “No, mom, there’s got to be some other explanation!” I told her. My voice was raising, both in pitch and volume, as I tried to scramble in my mind for some sort of reason it couldn’t be me.  How could I have done it? I can’t control the weather.

            A man came through the crowd and stood in front of me. This man wore a solid white suit, which matched his short trimmed hair perfectly.  I’d recognized this man as the mayor of our city: Onett, Eagleland.

            “My boy, do you know the amount of trouble you’re in?” He said, his voice calm, but carrying a presence of power.

            “I… No, there’s something going on!”  
            “There is a whole forest, now entirely destroyed by a young boy.  When the boy passes out on the pavement, he causes the fire to disappear just in a flash.  Now tell me, how does that happen?”

            “I… I don’t know….” I was so confused.  I didn’t know what was happening.

            “The forest is destroyed, and with you here, the town is in danger. I would throw you in jail, but I’m afraid that you’d tear that down as well.”

            “W-what’s gonna happen to me?”

            “As of this instant, you are banished from this town. You have thirty minutes to leave before I call the authorities.

 

             I spent all thirty minutes running.

 

* * *

 

             The destroyed forest was the only place I could think of to go. As I stood in the same clearing in which I’d encountered the wolf, I saw the tree stump I tripped over. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked to be a burned carcass.  That must have been the cooked meat I smelled earlier. Wait, something was different about this place.

            I heard something, a voice of some sorts.  It sounded feminine and angry.  I couldn’t exactly make out what the voice was saying, so I tried to figure out where it was coming from.

            “Hello?” I asked.  “Is anyone there?” There was no response. I looked around, but I found nothing. Nothing, save for the tree stump. It looked pure white on top, contrasting the dark brown from the tree’s bark.  Listening closely, I could almost make out what the voice was saying.

            “Shit.” I heard the voice clearly.  “Fuck!”

            “Hello?” I called out again.  Still, there was no response.

            Defeated, I went to sit on the tree stump and think about what all had happened, and how fast it had all occurred.  The stump must have been soft, because it felt as though my bottom went right through it. Wait, this was worse. The stump must have caved in, because I felt my whole body fall through it.  With a loud yell, I scared myself as I fell through.

 

* * *

 

 

            “Who the fuck are you?!” I heard as I opened my eyes for the second time today. This voice was the same voice I’d heard in the forest, only much louder and more clear.

            “Wh-what?” I asked.  I lazily looked in the direction of the voice and jolted awake.

            She had medium-length blonde hair, about down to her shoulders, and eyes that showed what happens in the calm of a storm.  Their brilliant green blended effortlessly with a pale grey. Her eyes looked more cautious, more hostile, than what the people’s eyes in Onett looked.  She didn’t seem to enjoy my company.

            “I’ll ask you again.  Who the fuck are you?” Her voice was low, almost inaudible.

            “I- My name is Dustin.”  I answered meekly.

            “Shh!” She commanded.  “They’ll hear you!”

            “Who’s ‘they’?” I asked her in a whisper.  As if by a response, she showed me a sort of cannon attached to her right arm. The actual cannon had a black finish, but the outer shell was a matte white.  The cannon also had three robotic arms coming out of it to form a tip at the end of the barrel.  She looked as though she was aiming it at me.

            “Whoa there, girl.” I said, raising my hands up in surrender. “There’s no need to shoot me!” She frowned at me, but lowered her arm cannon.

            “This isn’t dangerous.” She said.  “It’s not even operable.  And I’m not a girl.”

            “Wait, that thing is broken?” I asked.  “Then why did you try to shoot me with it?”

            “Do you not know anything?” She asked in response.  “This is a portal gun!  You know, from Aperture Science?”  I must have looked confused, because she just let out a deep sigh.

            “I’m a runaway test subject.  That’s why I’m out here?”  It still didn’t click with me.

            “You’re a runaway, too?”  My eyes almost lit up. “I’m a runaway!”

            “What?” Now she was the confused one. “Your clothes don’t look anything like the clothes around here.  At least, not what I remember of the clothes they wore.  I… I haven’t really seen other people in a long time.”

            “What, did they keep you locked up in a cell or something?” I said, half-joking.

            “Yes, actually, they did.”

            “Oh….” I said.  “Well, you said they were going to hear us.  Are they looking for you?”

            “I don’t doubt it.  They’d do anything to keep me locked up.”

            “What did you do?” I asked her.  I wondered what would have to occur for someone to be locked up for such a long time without any human contact.

            “I… I can’t exactly remember.” She replied.  “I’m not exactly sure if I did anything.”

            I got up from the ground and took her hand, helping her off the ground.

            “By the way, I never got your name.” I said.

            “My name is…. I don’t know what my name is.  I was just known as Test Subject #1500.”

            “Well, what do you want me to call you?” I asked.  “I don’t think you’d want to be called that.”

            She looked up to the treetops, looking at the birds flying overhead. It hadn’t dawned on me before, but it was light outside.  I must have slept for a long time.

            “Call me Skye.” She said.  “I love the way it looks.”

            “Skye?” I said, repeating it over and over in my brain.  “That’s a pretty name.”

            “Watch it,” she said.  “I’m not a girl, so don’t you call me ‘she,’ you got that?”

            “Okay,” I said.  “So then what do you want me to say?”

            “I’d prefer if you said ‘they,’ instead.”

            “Okay then, Skye.  Let’s go.”

            “Go where?” She seemed confused, and I let out a playing sigh.

            “We’re going to find someone who can fix that portal thing of yours!” I said. “I know there’s this doctor who lives in Winters named Dr. Andonuts.  I’ve heard he’s better than Einstein or even Heisenburg!”

            “Wait, where’s Winters?” They asked.  “I’ve never heard of a place like that.  I’ve never heard of this Dr. Donut either.”

            “Dr. Andonuts!” I said.  “Winters is just right to the north of Eagleland!  Don’t they teach people that?”

            “Where is Eagleland?” They asked, looking more confused than ever.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter went too quickly, in my personal opinion, but I would like to say that if you enjoyed this or if you want to leave constructive criticism, please do so!


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